Kiwis must cope without Mehrtens, Lomu
The continuing misfortunes of Andrew Mehrtens and Jonah Lomu continue to dominate the build-up to New Zealand’s Tri-Nations clash with Australia on Saturday.
Mehrtens and Lomu, battling injury and illness respectively, have both pulled out of their respective provincial sides for the weekend’s National Provincial Championship opening matches and look certain to miss the World Cup.
Lomu has been cleared to play despite ongoing dialysis treatment but withdrew because of “tight leg muscles“, while Mehrtens has succumbed to a calf injury.
“There is no problem that I am aware of with his dialysis,” All Blacks team doctor John Mayhew told the Dominion Post newspaper.
“It must be some other minor injury that I’m not aware of and Wellington needs to talk about that,” he said.
Lomu was due to line up for Wellington against Southland, and Mehrtens for Canterbury against Northland.
All Blacks coach John Mitchell has made several expected changes to his line-up after the win over South Africa last week.
The front row which faced Australia returns to action, with prop Greg Somerville coming in for Kees Meeuws and hooker Keven Mealamu back in place of Mark Hammett.
Openside flanker Richie McCaw returns to the number seven jersey at the expense of Marty Holah, while Brad Thorn loses his locking place to Chris Jack.
All four replaced players will be on the bench, alongside scrum-half Steve Devine and utility backs Leon MacDonald and Daniel Carter.
Devine is in for Byron Kelleher as the reserve scrum-half.
Meanwhile, Australian coach Eddie Jones is fighting off suggestions his charges need to adopt a South African approach to stifle the All Blacks in Auckland.
The Springboks opted for a highly disciplined, forwards-oriented approach to their clash with the All Blacks in Dunedin and it nearly paid off as they went down 19-11 mainly due to the greater accuracy of Carlos Spencer’s goal-kicking.
But Jones has squashed any thoughts of taking such an approach to try and avoid a repeat of the 50-21 hammering they suffered in July in Sydney, the last time the two sides clashed.
“South Africa play like South Africa and we play like Australia,” Jones told the New Dominion Post.
“We don’t play like that and we’re not equipped to play like that. For us to copy that style would be quite foolhardy.”
Jones has made just one change to the team which beat South Africa 29-9 in Brisbane last month, with prop Glenn Panoho coming in for Patricio Noriega, who has a groin strain. Uncapped New South Wales prop Alastair Baxter comes onto the bench as cover.
Toutai Kefu has been named at number eight despite struggling with a calf injury, and his encounter with the All Blacks’ Jerry Collins is expected to be an impressive one.
“You don’t play more than 50 Tests for the world champions by accident,” Collins said of an opponent he clearly respects.
“He is a big part of the Wallabies and suits their style,” he said.
“This is the last test for both of us before the World Cup and you can be sure the Wallabies will not have spent this last week making cups of tea for each other.”
Auckland, the venue for the match, is under a thick slab of cloud and is being soaked by a steady downpour of rain. Those conditions are not expected to lift in time for the match.
New Zealand, with three wins from three matches, have already secured the Tri-Nations title but need to beat Australia to reclaim the Bledisloe Cup from their trans-Tasman rivals.
If the All Blacks win by 22 points or more they will replace England at the top of the Zurich world rankings.
M Muliaina (Auckland); D Howlett (Auckland), T Umaga (Wellington), A Mauger (Canterbury), J Rokocoko (Auckland); C Spencer (Auckland), J Marshall (Canterbury); J Collins (Wellington), R McCaw (Canterbury), R Thorne (Canterbury, captain), A Williams (Auckland), C Jack (Canterbury), G Somerville (Canterbury), K Mealamu (Auckland), D Hewett (Canterbury).
M Hammett (Canterbury), K Meeuws Auckland), B Thorn (Canterbury), M Holah (Waikato), S Devine (Auckland), D Carter (Wellington), L MacDonald (Canterbury).
C Latham (Queensland); W Sailor (Queensland), M Rogers (New South Wales), E Flatley (Queensland), L Tuqiri (New South Wales); S Larkham (ACT), G Gregan (ACT), captain); T Kefu (Queensland), D Giffin (ACT), G Smith (ACT), P Waugh (New South Wales), D Vickerman (ACT), G Panoho (Queensland), B Cannon (New South Wales), B Young (ACT).
J Paul (ACT), A Baxter (New South Wales), N Sharpe (Queensland), O Finegan (ACT), C Whitaker (New South Wales), M Giteau (ACT), M Burke (New South Wales).
